The EnviroNaut project is moving forward fast and currently working on the first online course for "Environmental Officers" that will help workers to continue contributing to the environment while enjoying water sports and nautical tourism. This first edition is especially dedicated to marinas, skippers, charter & maintenance services, NGOs, Associations, sea schools and water sports clubs.

The course will soon be available online but we need your contribution. The structure has been developed, but in order to take the next step and before delivering the full course, we want to hear from you! The project partners want to make sure that the course delivered by EnviroNaut is really needed and will make a real change for the sector. Stakeholders in the sector will have the opportunity to respond to a short questionnaire that will take the course to the next level, adding a lot of value to the course and to the industry.

Take this opportunity to shape the future of nautical tourism and help us deliver a course that will really make a difference in the sector. Click here to complete the survey.

The draft course structure can be found here and a summarised version is available here.

BlueInvest and EBI are pleased to present the 2nd edition of the BlueInvest e-pitch session, which will be held online on 23 March at 16:00 CET. It will focus on the recreational boating industry and innovation in the sector. BlueInvest and EBI have selected five European companies with innovative solutions related to green boating and boat repair to present their innovative solutions.

BlueInvest is an EU initiative to boost innovation and investment in sustainable technologies for the blue economy by supporting readiness and access to finance for early-stage companies, SMEs and start-ups. It is funded by the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund. It offers different opportunities to learn about BlueInvest and direct contact to investors. Through this initiative, EBI aims to support the sector as well as to further promote its mission advancing and representing a sustainable boating and nautical tourism industry #MadeInEurope.

Register here.

4 April, 14:00 – 16:00 CET                                            2nd Council meeting (Online – Zoom)

20 – 21 June                                                                    General Assembly (Jeanneau - Les Herbiers, France)

20 June, Afternoon                                                       3rd Council meeting (Les Herbiers, France)

21 June, Morning                                                           2nd General Assembly (Les Herbiers, France)

19 April, 10:00 CET                                                        2nd Executive Committee (Online, Zoom)

The International EPD System is developing a first international standard for Life Cycle Analysis (LCA), the so-called Product Category Rules (PCR), for the boating industry. It will cover all recreational boats, from small craft to large yachts, as well as certain types of commercial vessels.

LCA is a method used to evaluate the environmental impact of a product through its life cycle encompassing extraction and processing of the raw materials, manufacturing, distribution, use, recycling, and final disposal. It can be used to provide information to designers, manufacturers, and customers on the environmental impact, as well as analyse where impact can be reduced cost-efficiently.

The next version of the PCR will be published in the coming months, which EBI has been involved in to ensure its practicality and potential use by the industry. For the next revision and with the aim to further improve the standard, EBI plans be even more involved. In line with this, EBI has now been accepted as member of the PCR Committee developing the standard.

European Boating Industry has been accepted as member of the European Committee for drawing up Standards in the field of inland Navigation (CESNI), during its meeting held on 13 October 2022 in Strasbourg. The official confirmation was delivered to EBI in early 2023.

With the achievement of this new benchmark, EBI joins the group of experts from EU Member States and the CCNR for the development and simplification of procedures in the field of inland navigation regulation, so that the experience gained by the CCNR can be made fully available to all the institutional partners and stakeholders concerned. CESNI also develops standards relevant to recreational boating and it is EBI’s aim to keep these harmonised at European level and aligned as much as possible with EU legislation.

You can learn more about CESNI here.

The European Commission has developed a new tool taking the digitisation of the tourism sector a step further.

Thanks to a survey that was conducted last year, the European Commission has collected information from stakeholders on which digital tools and practices are being implemented across in the tourism sector of the European Union.

The result is an inventory of good practices, which offer tangible benefits to users and service providers and promotes cooperation between European actors, as they could be replicated by other EU regions or actors facing similar challenges.

More information and the database itself is available here. It can, for instance, be sorted to those tools relevant for maritime and inland water tourism.
The above mentioned survey is still accepting feedback here and EBI is available to support companies from the boating industry to provide their solutions.

A new EU project will install some 400 charging stations for electric boats along the coast from Gothenburg (Sweden) to Kristiansand (Sørlandet, Norway). The initiative is part of an EU-funded Swedish-Norwegian cooperation project.

The project will create the conditions for establishing an electric boat charging route in the marinas between Gothenburg and Strömstad. Sweden and Norway together have one million recreational motorboats, the vast majority of which run on fossil fuels. The project is expected to have a positive impact by reducing the carbon dioxide emissions produced by boats in both countries, which are estimated to be around 400,000 tonnes per year.

With a strong recreational boating culture, numerous ports, maritime destinations and a tradition of boat manufacturing, the Skagerrak region is seen as having good conditions for a rapid transition to electrification and therefore chosen for the project.

The aim of the project is to participate in the ecological transition through electrification, smart technology and sustainable business models.

You can learn more about this here.

blue innovation dock

The first edition of blue innovation dock (bid) at boot Düsseldorf could not have been better received by industry, politics and visitors. Sessions were livestreamed allowing B2B and B2C visitors of boot Düsseldorf, as well as a sizeable online audience to follow the discussions.

The event brought together more than 110 high-level speakers from all corners of Europe, including not only the different sectors of the industry, but also journalists, innovators, as well as representatives of universities and policy-makers who gathered at the BID from 21 to 29 January.

All sessions are recorded and available here and written reports the sessions can be found here. 

International Breakfast Meeting 

Almost 200 people attended the 8th edition of the International Breakfast Meeting to learn more about the shortage of skilled labour in the sector and listen to the debate between speakers.

One more time, EBI succeeded in bringing together industry leaders, journalists and representatives of the EU institutions at the IBM.

The recording of the event is available here.

Official European Boating Industry press release on boot Düsseldorf

EBI has issued an official press release recapping the main events the association has organised or participated in during the boot show.

The press release is available here.

Welcome to the future of boating     - 

From January 21 you can follow the blue innovation dock sessions both in person fromboot Düsseldorf and elsewhere thanks to the livestream link you will find here!

Join us and don’t miss any of the nearly 24 hours of content we have in store. You will have the opportunity to listen to some of the main actors from the indsutry and Institutions discuss the most relevant issues for the future of the recreational boating and nautical industry.

You can discover the full programme here.